Patio problems

Question

I’ve attached a picture of our patio. I have no idea when it was installed or what the material is. As you can see, it’s in awful condition and practically unusable. We bought this house in a highly sought after area for a really good price. We have been saving and then doing one project at a time, paid in cash, since we bought the house 7 years ago. We only have 2 bathrooms to go (scheduled to start next month), and new siding (next year). In the meantime, I’d love to be able to come up with a short term, cost effective fix for the patio. It’s a walk out from the basement to our lake lot and dock. Eventually, we want to have it all torn out and put in an upper and lower deck/patio, but that’s last on our list. What can I do to make this useable in the meantime? I thought about rubber pavers (it would cost a little over $1,000) which would be worth it if it makes it flat and useable for the next few years, but given the unevenness of the surface, drainage issues, etc., I didn’t think it would be feasible. Then I thought about just trying to clean and fill in the broken areas with cement patches. I’m pretty sure that won’t work either though. Is there ANYTHING I can do other than tearing it all out to make it useable for a few years?

Answers ( 5 )

I mean you could smooth over a layer of concrete. It will look nice till the ground moves. But then you’ll have a heck of a mess to clean up. So not a good idea. carpet is one way, yeah sure. I’m thinking a rubber paver would cost a lot more than pavers. It really boils down to what you want and what you’re looking for. Even temporary.

Upon doing a TON of research and coming up with nothing regarding a patio like mine, I’m thinking I’ll just buy an area rug big enough for a patio table and chairs. It won’t eliminate the unevenness, but it’ll be better than nothing and cheap enough until we can have it completely redone. Thank you for your feedback.

Also, I realize the patio is not salvageable/repairable as is in the long term. I’m just looking for a possible solution in the short term (1-3 years maybe) that would allow us to use the space. As it is, lawn chairs and tables sit unevenly, the grill is a pain to use. The easiest, least expensive solution is rubber pavers. The height wouldn’t interfere with the walk out door, but if you’re talking about stone or brick pavers in your answer, I don’t know that the height, let alone the cost would be realistic.

Hi, Darcy. Yeah, I see what you mean. It would be really involved to try to save what you have there. I would think just replacing it with pavers would be a good idea. Or install all concrete. But that could be way more involved. Go with the pavers for sure.

Right now you have way too many damaged bricks/areas to fix what you have now.